regarded as undertakings established under landlord influence, with the view of affording merely a pretext for the maintenance of high rents. It is needless to observe that such a feeling is, with regard to the schools here noticed, as mistaken as it is pernicious; and that the only object which their promoters have in view is, by diffusing abroad the seeds of industrial intelligence, to increase to the utmost extent the productive powers of our soil, not for the exclusive advantage of a class, but for the general well-being of the whole community. A consideration of the impediments just referred to as retarding the progress of agricultural education, will obviously suggest the means that should be adopted to afford full scope for its efficiency. When the importance and necessity of agricultural education is universally admitted, the provision for affording it should not be allowed to remain dependent on chance, and beset with innumerable difficulties. Whatever body is intrusted with the direction of it, should receive adequate powers to establish and support agricultural schools in all the poorer districts of the country, without requiring as a preliminary condition a certain amount of local contribution. And special facilities should, if necessary, be largely afforded by law, for obtaining land for model farms in connection with such institutions, so as to prevent the possibility of failure from defective title to, or power of transferring such land. Again, in the case of landowners being willing to contribute towards the establishment of agricultural schools on their estates, but whose pecuniary circumstances prevent them from advancing the necessary funds, they should be allowed to make the required amount a charge on the rental of the model farm until principal and interest be paid off. There can be little doubt that if this facility were afforded, many such persons, anxious to forward the good work of agricultural improvement, would gladly avail themselves of it, and agricultural schools thus rapidly increase. To remove the apathy or prejudices of the farming classes towards agricultural education, but two things seem necessary-1st, To place the relations of landlord and tenant on a fair and equitable basis, and thereby not only remove the barriers to agricultural progress, but open a wide field for the exercise of agricultural enterprise. 2nd, To convince them that the improved agricultural principles laid down for their guidance are not crude theories, or doubtful speculations, but FACTS capable of practical realization, in every instance in which a fair amount of skill and industry shall be brought to bear in working them out. The first of these preliminary conditions may be effected by legislation. The second, it is the province of the model farms connected with the various agricultural schools to achieve, by affording in their respective localities satisfactory proofs of the truth and value of the improved principles put forward by them; and from what we have already witnessed, we have no doubt that, with the rising generation of farmers, their teaching and example will be eminently successful. The beneficial effects likely to arise from a widely extended and well organized system of agricultural education can hardly be overrated. The cultivators of the soil, once properly instructed in the principles of improved and skilful cultivation, and trained to regular and systematic habits of industry, of arranging and conducting their business-will exhibit in their farms, gardens, and homesteads, a gratifying change for the better: while the nation at large will reap no trifling advantages, because increased efficiency and success in developing the productive powers of the soil will be sure to permeate in a current of healthy prosperity through all classes of the community. For, although the circumstance may not be generally recognised, yet it is an indisputable fact, that every other occupation or profession derives its support, either directly or indirectly, from the cultivation of the soil, which may justly be regarded as the basis of all human industry. Accordingly, therefore, as this art languishes or flourishes, so in proportion will those dependent on it assume a weak or vigorous character. By the general adoption of an improved system of agriculture and rural economy, the face of the country will undergo a gratifying transformation. Instead of the spirits being depressed, and the eye offended on every side by the sight of neglected fields, dilapidated fences and farm buildings, undrained swamps, and unreclaimed wastes, the sight will be gladdened by improved and careful husbandry, neatly-trimmed fences, and well-arranged and well-kept farm-steadings: thorough and artificial drainage will cause the unwholesome swamp to disappear; and industry skilfully directed, and properly protected and encouraged, will cause the waste to smile like a garden. ART. II.-Notices of New Improvements in Mining, Metallurgy, Machinery, Chemical Manufactures, &c., and of Discoveries in general science bearing upon Industrial Arts. MINING, METALLURGY, ETC. Machines for facilitating the Ascent and Descent of Miners.-There is, perhaps, no species of work so exhausting of strength as climbing ladders, and we need not be surprised, therefore, that the workmen employed in very deep mines lose their bodily strength in a very short time, and that their duration of life is very short. To avoid this intense labour, it is usual to bring up the men from the bottom of the shaft in the kibbles or buckets in which the ore is drawn up; but besides the enormous waste of time entailed by this slow process, especially in deep mines, great numbers of frightful accidents continually occur. The number of persons who lose their lives by accidents in the mines of Great Britain and Ireland has been frequently set down at 2,500 per annum! The proportion of these deaths occasioned by falling down shafts, especially by the breaking of the ropes in bringing up the miners, has been estimated in South Staffordshire at one-fifth, and in Scotland, Yorkshire, Lancashire, &c., at one-half. In Prussia, and in many parts of the Continent, in consequence of the numerous accidents which have occurred from the breaking of the ropes, it is now strictly forbidden to allow any of the men to come up in the kibbles. But as no miners above the age of 30 or 35 years can endure the labour of ascending the ladders in shafts, very frequently from 200 to 400 fathoms deep, machines had to be invented by which they could mount with comparatively little exertion, and with considerable safety. Such machines are now in very general use in Belgium, Germany, France, and to some extent in Cornwall, and in several parts of Great Britain, but, we believe, in no instance in Ireland. As it is, we fear, vain to appeal to the humanity of mining companies or proprietors, we shall lay before our readers the results of some elaborate calculations of Mr. Dieck, the Inspector of Mining Machinery in Westphalia, which show clearly that there is a very great economy in employing those machines, over the ladder and rope system; and it would be well if the fact was universally known, for we have no doubt that if the destruction of the health or the sacrifice of life would do little towards their introduction, the economy would. The base of these calculations is, that each miner earns ten silbergroschen, or about one shilling, for each shift of eight hours; where the wages are more than that sum, the economy will be greater in the same proportion; and the experimental data are founded upon the experience of four machines worked in Belgium and the north of France. If we assume the number of miners to be 250, and the depth of the shaft to be 150 fathoms, the loss of time entailed by the ascent and descent in each shift of eight hours will be as follows: 1.7 0.75 1:07 1.5 By the machine at the Davy Shaft, near Valenciennes The ascent and descent by the rope requires, therefore- Twice the time required by the ladder system, And twenty times the time required on those now in use in Cornwall. If we estimate the interest upon the original cost, the cost of maintenance of each system, and the time and strength lost by the workmen, by a money value, the following will be the cost per annum for 250 men and a shaft of 150 fathoms :Ascent and descent by ladders Ditto, by ropes ... Ditto, by the machine at the Davy shaft La Reunion £3,150 3,021 From these calculations it would appear, that in a mine where 250 men descend and ascend a shaft of 150 fathoms by the rope system, the saving by the employment of a machine-even supposing the very highest price to be paid for it, say £1,650, would not only cover this outlay the first year, but would leave a profit of £693. In a case where the men descend by the ladders and ascend by the rope, the saving by the use of the machine would also cover the outlay in the first year. In Cornwall, the weekly loss of time sustained by the workmen by the ascent and descent of ladders is estimated at 3s., and by the machines at 9d. In neither of the cases mentioned is the far more important loss of health, and frequently of life, taken into account, or the misery and sufferings of orphans or widows, or the loss sustained by the public by their maintenance. Our space at present forbids our noticing the best construction of machine now employed, but we shall take the earliest opportunity of returning to the subject, and in the mean time we would recommend the preceding calculations to the notice of mining proprietors and mining companies.-See Bemerkungen über das Maschinenwesen auf den Kohlengruben Belgiens und Nord Frankreichs, von Herrn Dieck. Karsten und von Dechens Archiv, Bd. 25, Heft 2. Arrangement of the Fuse in the Bore, in blasting operations.-Mr. Braunsdorf recently drew the attention of the Mining Association of Freiberg to the advantage of placing the fuse in contact with the powder in the bottom of the bore, and not with the upper portion merely, as is usually done. He showed that, where strong powder and heavy charges are employed, the upper or weakest part of the bore receives the first shock, and frequently gives way so suddenly that the greater part of the charge is scattered about and produces no effect; but where the whole charge is fired from the bottom or strongest part of the bore, the greatest possible effect is produced, and the explosion is always regular, no matter what the strength of the charge may be.-Berg und hüttenm. Zeitung. Jahrgany 12, No 1, S. 14. New Form of Safety Lamp.-M. Chuard has been endeavouring to improve the construction of the safety lamp, so as to render it, as far as possible, safe; and although he has not as yet succeeded in reducing his plan to practice, he has been so far successful as to induce a commission of the French Institute to award him a prize of 500 francs as an encouragement to proceed with his praiseworthy efforts. He proposes that the air should only arrive at the flame after having passed through a considerable length of metallic tube, the orifice of which is capable of being closed by a piston, kept suspended by a thread in a particular way. If the quantity of fire-damp should so increase as to produce an explosive mixture, a portion will burn in the interior of the lamp and consume the thread, by which the piston will fall and close the air tube before the flame can pass through the gauze.-Comptes Rendus de l'Academie, 30th Jan., 1854. Reuben Plant's Safety-lamp.-This form of lamp differs from the ordinary Davy in having the wire gauze of argentine or of iron wire electro-tinned or silvered, by which much more light is produced than where the common black iron wire ganze is used. Inside the gauze, which, strange to say, as in the oldest forms, reaches to the oil reservoir! is a cylinder of glass, which narrows somewhat at the point of the flame.-Repertory of Patent Inventions, October, 1853, p. 238. Roasting of Iron Ores with the assistance of a jet of Steam.—In 1843, Von Nordenskjöld recommended some trials to be made in roasting magnetic iron ore containing pyrites, with the assistance of a jet of steam, at the iron works of Dals Bruck, in Russian Finland. The roasting was effected in a kind of reverberatory furnace, prepared by Count Rumford, and was effective, the whole of the sulphuret having been completely decomposed. The pig iron subsequently produced from that ore yielded an excellent bar iron, without the slightest trace of red-sear. Since then the process has been much used both in Finland and in the Ural, as well with charcoal as with waste gas from the tunnel head. In 1845, Nordenskjöld improved the construction of the roasting furnaces, by giving them almost the exact form of the Norwegian and Swedish gas furnaces. In order that the action of the steam be fully effective in roasting the ore, there must be a corresponding access of air. Steam and sulphuret of iron mutually decompose one another, with the production of oxide of iron and sulphurated hydrogen. If the latter, as fast as formed, meets with a sufficient quantity of air, it will burn, producing sulphureous acid, which in its passage through the ore produces no injurious action. It, however, there be not sufficient access of air, a portion of the sulphurated hydrogen in passing over an oxidized ore, beyond the direct action of the current of steam, would be decomposed, producing water and sulphuret of iron again. This process of Nordenskjöld is of great importance, independent of the improvement which may be effected in the quality of the iron, by the almost complete removal of the sulphur, inasmuch as it renders the process of roasting the ores, by means of the waste gases from the tunnel head, perfect, and effects so great a saving in the amount of fuel consumed in this part of the process of iron smelting, as to lower the cost of production very considerably.-Scheerer's Metallurgie, Bd. 1, S. 75, and Bd. 2, S. 77—79. On the Composition of the Sheathing of Ships.-M. Bobierre has paid considerable attention to this subject, and has arrived at the following conclusions as to the cause of the rapid destruction of some copper and bronze sheathing:-1. When unalloyed copper is employed, the presence of arsenic appears to hasten its destruction. 2. All bronzes which appear to have stood well, contained from 4 to 5 per cent. of tin, that quantity being necessary to form an homogenous alloy. When the per-centage of tin is only 25 to 3.5, which is very frequently the case, no definite alloy is produced, and the mass is of unequal composition, and, being unequally acted upon, is soon destroyed. 3. When impure copper is employed, the alloy is never homogenous, and is unequally acted upon in consequence. We thus see that the so frequent destruction of the sheathing of copper-bottomed vessels arises from the tendency to use inferior brittle copper, and by diminishing the proportion of tin, to economize the difference between the price of that metal and copper, at the same time that the cost of rolling is also less, in consequence of the greater softness of the poor alloy. Bobierre thinks that the addition of a very small portion of zinc very much improves the bronze, by producing a more perfect and uniform distribution of the positive metals, and consequently a much more definite alloy.-Comptes Rendus de l'Academie, T. xxxvii., p. 131, and T. xxxviii., p. 122. Oxidized Silver.—The high appreciation in which ornaments in oxidized silver are now held, render a notice of the process followed interesting. There are two distinct shades in use, one produced by chlorine, which has a brownish tint, and the other by sulphur, which has a blueish black tint. To produce the former, it is only necessary to wash the article with a solution of sal-ammoniac; a much more beautiful tint may, however, be obtained by employing a solution composed of equal parts of sulphate of copper and sal-ammoniac in vinegar. The fine black tint may be produced by a slightly warm solution of sulphuret of potassium or sodium. Chem.-Techn. Mittheilungen von Dr. Ellsner, Berlin, 1853. on. Galvanoplastic Niello.-Niello, a peculiar style of enamelling, consists in engraving or stamping figures on a plate of silver or gold, and then filling the incised lines, or impressed pattern, with a sort of enamel, differing, however, from true enamel, which is a kind of glass, by being formed of a mixture of the sulphurets of lead, silver, and copper. This mixture is of a black colour-hence the name niello from nigellum, derived from niger, black-and when melted into the intaglio parts of a plate, give it somewhat the appearance of an inked engraved copper plate. A new kind of niello work has lately been introduced on the Continent, in which, however, the figures are not produced by an enamel of sulphuret of silver, as in the true niello, but by a different coloured metal, thus on a plate of gold may be produced fine engravings, the lines of which are in silver and so This can be effected in two ways; first, by covering the plate to be ornamented with a varnish, exactly as is used in etching, the pattern or ornament is then to be engraved on this varnish, and the metallic surface etched out to the proper depth. On the removal of the varnish with oil of turpentine or ether, the engraved plate is to be placed in a solution of the metal intended to form the pattern, and a deposit allowed to form, in the usual way adopted in all galvanoplastic works. When the intaglio lines have been completely filled up by the deposited metal, the plate is removed from the solution and grounds, when the pattern will be fully developed. The second method consists in sketching the ornament on a sheet of paper with lithographic ink, placing this, with the side upon which the drawing was made, upon a plate of silver or other metal to be ornamented, and pressing them together; the paper is now removed with water, slightly acidified, leaving the ink adhering to the plate, which is to be sprinkled with sand. When the ink has fully dried, the sand is blown away; the plate is placed in a solution of the metal which it is intended should form the ground, and put in connexion with a battery.. By this means a deposit will be formed over the whole surface, except the parts protected by the ink; on the removal of the latter with alcohol or spirits of turpentine, &c., the original metal will be exposed, forming a pattern. Many highly ornamental and useful applications might be made of these processes, especially in the manufacture of church furniture. Instead of simply engraving the name and legend upon pieces of plate presented to persons, it might be put in in letters of gold at very little more expense. We recommend these processes to the attention of our silversmiths. The recent Experiments upon the Metal Aluminium.-Oersted, many years ago, succeeded in obtaining a combination from alumina, the base which, in union with silica, forms so large a proportion of many rocks and of clay, and chlorine. His process consisted in mixing alumina, prepared from alum, with charcoal, and heating the mixture in a porcelain tube to a bright red heat, and then passing a stream of chlorine gas over it. The substance obtained was a solid pulverulent body, of a pale yellow, with a shade of green colour, and readily fusible and volatile. In 1828, and again in 1846, Professor Wöhler, by heating this subtance |